November bees

Thank goodness for bee blocks.  I'm feeling a bit of the early winter blahs and just not sewing much.  So, thank goodness for bees, they force me to do something!  And on that note, November's block for the fat stash bee.  Love the monkey!

I think I'll tackle my travelling circles bee this afternoon, too.  Unfortunately the package arrived with the fabric removed so I'm really winging it on this one.

c

Pin It

Let's take better pictures: finding your light

Hey!  Welcome to the first post of the series "lets take better pictures"!  I'm going to preface this by saying I know nothing about photography.  I've tried reading books and manuals, but they just confuse me.  That being said, there is going to be homework, and at some point that homework is going to include reading your manual.  Yup.

But today we're starting easy with baby steps, or, finding your light.  Most posts and books I've read concentrate on how to minimize too much light.  If that's your problem.. I'm not going to say what I want to say.  Let's just say that I'm jealous!  I live in a part of the world where there's not a ton of light.  Ever watched X Files or The Killing, or anything else shot in Seattle or Vancouver?  You can probably picture it.  Low levels of grey blue light.  Perfect for the spawning of underground music scenes and mushrooms, not so great for photos.

a nice sunny day in this neck of the woods

How do you shoot in that kind of light?  Well, that's where our first homework comes in!  Grab your camera and walk around your home, check out all the areas with windows and take some photos.  It's a good idea to do this around the time of day when you would be taking project photos.  Turn off the lights in the room so you're only getting natural light in your photos.  Oh, and big, big rule here:

Don't take photos at night!  They'll just look like crap (unless you have a whole lighting rig, in which case, dude, why are you reading this?).

Don't worry about tidying up, I'm not going to make you post these.  But throw them up on your computer and have a good look at them.  What you want is an area that has fairly even, undirectional light.  If you're outdoorsy, pull out your compass -  a room with a big north facing window is often best.

Ok, let's look at my shots to get an idea of what we're looking for:

The bedroom.  We're facing east south east here.  The light is great for a bedroom but not so good for photos.  See that flare on the window frame?  Because of the direction we're facing light shines directly in through the window, and on good days, gives us some great sunbeams.  The cats love it but it's not so good for photos.  Things look washed out when they're in the direct sun, too dark out of it.  The contrast is just too hard on the camera and beyond my photoshop fix it skills.

The bathroom, facing SSW.  Talk about flare!  This is the brightest room in the house and the one I would use if I wanted to use all the tips on other blogs about mitigating light.  But you know, it's really hard to work around a tub and toilet!

The kitchen, facing WNW.  This is the ideal spot to shoot in our house.  There's lots of windows but because of the way the house is situated there are never any sunbeams, just even diffuse light.  And with all those windows it's fairly bright even on a rainy overcast day.  It is the kitchen table, though, so it's normally covered in stuff.  And now I'm getting hungry from staring at the fruit bowl.

The tv room, or sitting room as we so pretentiously call it.  Too much Downton Abbey maybe?  It's right above the kitchen, has a smaller window, but still gets respectable light levels because the trees are thinner higher up.  This is also right next to my sewing room, so it's way more convenient.  So this is my winner!  Man do I ever hate that carpet, though!

So go, take some photos, explore your light.  Figure out what room in your house has the perfect balance of space, light, and lack of clutter for you to take better pictures.  Oh, and if you want one more piece of homework, go read this article.  It will change your life.  Um, or at least help with the photo part of it.

xox,
c

Pin It

Frame block tutorial

 Remember this bunny block?  Well, I thought I'd share a tutorial on how I made it!  The one I've made for the tutorial is a little different, switching in more of the background fabric where I've used that aqua print in the bunny block.  Both styles give a great frame effect, one just looks like a floating frame, the other like there's a matt in the frame.  Either one would make a cute cushion, especially if it frames a favorite fabric or an initial embroidery.  Just saying.

Pin It

Work in process Wednesday

Congratulations Lee on a whole year of WIPW posts!!  I wish I'd started linking up from the beginning, hell I still have stuff in process that I started before she started WIPW!

 This week there's not too much going on.  Some churn dash blocks, a half started tutorial, a wedding ring quilt abandoned on a shelf.  Le suck.

Oh, and this big pile of tops waiting to be quilted!


much loves,
c

Pin It

For Andrew

My cousin Andrew and his girlfriend (mental note, find out what her name is!) are having a baby this winter.  A first grandkid for my aunt and uncle, a first great grand for my grandmother - and Andrew is the baby of all of us cousins!  So, of course, a quilt.

I wanted to get this made up before the baby comes, which should be around Christmas.  For entirely selfish reasons, I'll admit.  I have to be in Vancouver on the 10th and can hand deliver it rather than paying for postage.  Do you know how much I hate paying shipping?  Lots!!  Anyway, I don't know what type of baby they're having.  Yes, I know it's going to be human, but other than that, not so much.

So last night as I was finishing up the top I asked my husband if he thought this quilt would still be ok for a baby boy what with the pink.  Because I don't know if it's a boy or a girl.  So he looks at me and says: "are we having a baby?"  I wanted to say yes and watch him poop his pants, but no, I told him the truth.  Really, what kind of freak does he think he married that I would tell him we were having a kid by asking him if a quilt has too much pink?  Have my mood swings been that bad??  Silly hubbers!

xox,
c

Pin It

More embroider bee

Bad chelsea, bad, bad chelsea.  I realized two of my embroider bee blocks went out without posts.  One without photos even!  The shame!

Anyway, here's my little bunny block.  I love this one.  Uber cute.  And I like the frame I made for him so much this weekend I'll do up a little tutorial.  I think.  We'll see.  There's two other projects I need to work on - a baby quilt for my cousin and some churn dash blocks I'm making for me. But fingers crossed monday = tutorial.

have a great one,
c

Pin It

Made in Cherry quilt along

Anyone up for a quilt along?  As soon as I saw market shots of Sarah Fielke's Made in Cherry pattern, I was!

Sarah Fielke's Made in Cherry from the Lecien website

This is an easy peasy quilt that should go together really quickly.  Sarah's pattern has great instructions and I'll do a condensed version here every week for the quilt along - starting mid January.  Sound good?  Then join me!  Come on, you know you want to!!

Since most of us are putting together lists this time of year, here's the yardage requirements for this 80" by 80" quilt:

20" of 8 different fabrics (that's just over 1/2 yard each)*
2 1/2 yards of background fabric

* OR 220 charm squares (if your charm packs have the standard 42 per pack, you'll need 5 packs plus 10 charms cut from your stash - or 6 packs)

And if the size is scaring you, I'll be posting alternate instructions for a scaled down 60" by 60" top, perfect for snuggling.

xox,
c

Pin It